Voucher Codes: Understanding the Metrics18th May 2010

The growth of the ‘maximising consumer’

Voucher code search traffic is maturing

Growth of longtail searches shows

growing sophistication of consumers

Awin’s Top 20 Affiliates

Voucher Code Trends – AWin

The Data (thank you Hitwise)

With a year granular search terms featuring the word ‘voucher’ had quadrupled

Jul 08

Jul 09

34,200 search term variations

8,300

Jul 2009

41.5%

% of searches direct to VC sites, dropped by 5%

Retail site share of ‘voucher’ traffic

Merchants’ Reacting

Current Situation

Merchants are reacting differently:• doesn’t allow any paid search ads

to appear for brand + generic code terms• has banned an affiliate based on

brand misspells & impact on SEO strategy• allow a voucher affiliate brand rights

when codes are available

A merchant’s considerations• Impact on other affiliates; latency• New vs. Repeat customer• Setting commissions• Type of code• Distribution, monitoring & tracking• Just voucher code directories?• Paid Search & SEO T&Cs• Testing & optimising

Value of Traffic

Value of Code

Value of code: How to define

Any merchant needs to understand the importance of any affiliate’s traffic

Value System

Average Order Value

New Customer Acquisition

Contribution in the sales journey

Sales Volume

ConversionRate

Intelligent commission setting

Who Overwrites Content & Codes?

• When True Content is last referrer voucher code sites are more likely to be second to last referrer more than any other affiliate

• BUT this amounts to a very small number of sales and amount of commission

• Voucher Code & True Content affs gain equally when multiple referrer voucher code sale occurs

Latency – Click to sale speed

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• VC sites convert sooner• Other affiliates convert later

Latency – Click to sale speed

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es • Big similarity between TC & VC• Minor variance, inconclusive

Latency – Electrical code (general)

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• 16% sales’ increase for code• 2% increase in multiple ref sales• Most 1st click VC sales lose to VC sites

Setting the parameters• What type of code?

– Bespoke code?– Stretch and save code?

• What tracking is in place?• Which affiliates are you giving the code to?• Think ‘affiliates who use codes’ NOT ‘voucher

code affiliates’• Set yourself clear objectives

The power of an exclusive

• M&S issued exclusive code to one affiliate:

• Sales increase during the peak Christmas period for the three days was 5,000%

• What we don’t know: impact on rest of prog.

Vodafone e-voucher

• Uplift in orders; maintain Gross to Net?• Strength of the e-voucher for affiliates? • More exposure for Vodafone?• Did it increase upsells (longer term contracts)?• How cost effective was it to run the e-voucher?• What was the feedback from affiliates?

Vodafone e-voucher

• Value add proposition; bundles, extras, freebies• Opportunity to upsell or build affinity deals

• Vodafone saw a 12 fold increase in clicks

• Offers helped create significant buzz, but conversions dropped

• 28% uplift in contracts• 60% overall sales uplift

Driving customer acquisition• Shop Direct ran with three affiliates, £15 extra

off for new customers• Sales increased 75% for the three affiliates• New customer numbers increased 37%• Indicates code drove both additional buzz and

exposure and new customers• Further analysis showed higher than average

repeat customers driven by code

Increasing your basket value‘Stretch and Save’

• 3% increase in overall programme AOV• 41% increase in voucher code AOV

Monitoring & Reporting

• Voucher code tracking

Monitoring & Reporting

• Address affiliate concerns about overwriting of cookies in the final stages of buying cycle

• Enable every affiliate to provide compelling & exclusive deals to customers, without disadvantaging any particular affiliate type

• Reduce sales leakage

How does it work?

• Display/hide voucher code entry box in the checkout• Enable affiliates to pass in an extra parameter in the

inbound URL called a ‘deal ID’ • Corresponding promotion is applied automatically• Deal IDs are exclusive to individual affiliates• Deals are session-based, providing a powerful call to

action – ‘you must click on this link to get this deal’ & ‘you must start your journey from this site to get this deal’

How does it work?• Types of deals - £ or % off:

– Individual product– Product Category e.g. Driving– Product Subcategory e.g. Driving > Ferrari Driving– Site-wide

• Additional functionality:– Individual products can be excluded from any category,

subcategory or site-wide based deals– Set a minimum spend before customer receives discount

• Affiliate can have multiple deals running

Codes in action

Codes in action• Promotion running from 9-16 April: Exclusive

15% off Champneys Express Manicure or Pedicure, promoted via VoucherCodes.co.uk

• Regular 10% discount code also offered on the VoucherCodes.co.uk website

• Compared to same period in March:– Traffic increased by 212%– Number of sales doubled– Sales value increased by 68%

End-to-end analysisIssue Code

Which affiliates?Just VC sites?What type of

code?Sale strategy?

Monitor Sales:Volume?

Distribution?Control?

VC tracking in place?

Inform Decisions on Future Codes:Which affiliates?

Commission setting?Impact on other

affiliates?

The IAB’s Code of Conduct

• Sets standard for promotion of codes• No click to reveal• No attempt to mislead• Separation of codes from deals• Protects exclusivity• Voucher Code of Conduct

The Future• Better reporting; increased scrutiny• More automated solutions• End to end monitoring & ‘intelligent’ commission

setting• Tracking of mobile codes• Mobile opens opportunities for localised codes

Voucher Codes: Understanding the MetricsKevin Edwards, kevin.edwards@affiliatewindow.com020 7553 0354, 07974 810 547